Joey Gallo won’t ever hit for a high average. Joey Gallo’s slumps are ugly. New York Yankees’ fans are impatient. Those three sentences are undoubtedly true. However, that doesn’t mean his stay in the Bronx can’t be a success.
After slumping for a few weeks, the Yankees’ premier deadline reinforcement is once again heating up, at the best possible time. By going 3-for-4 with two solo home runs on Friday night series opener against Cleveland, he led the way in New York’s latest victory.
Even if his time with the Yankees has been a struggle at times – .167/.311/.447 with a .758 in the Bronx – he is up to 37 homers in the season, 12 of them with New York. Over his last seven games, he has five long balls and seven RBI, slashing an impressive .389/.400/1.222.
His first homer of the night broke a scoreless tie in the second inning, and the second blast helped seal the game.
For the season as a whole, Gallo is hitting .204/.357/.476 with 37 home runs and 75 RBI, but also with 196 strikeouts.
The Yankees’ slugger is seeing the benefits of his hard work
He kept working hard and now the Yankees are reaping the benefits of his hot stretch.
“Just working with our guys here, out hitting coaches here, is just kind of looking at video and over the years of when I was taking my best swing,” Gallo said, per SNY. “I was a little bit more opened up with my stance, kind of getting into that back leg a little bit more as well and getting into my legs. And watching video from a few weeks ago, it was more kind of flailing a little bit. I didn’t have much strength. I wasn’t in my legs as much. So being a big guy, that’s (how) you can create a lot of power and torque from being in your legs.
“So that’s kind of what we did. And obviously just confidence-wise — I knew, at some point, I would get going and things would start going my way. It’s just how the game of baseball works. But credit to our hitting coaches. They definitely helped me a lot.”